When she has a flight to catch, Kansas University women’s basketball coach Bonnie Henrickson tries to be at the airport 90 minutes ahead of time.

Thursday was different.

“I better give myself two and a half hours,” she said. She’d returned home to repack after hearing that passengers were being discouraged from taking carry-on luggage. That change happened after British authorities foiled a terrorist plot to blow up jets headed for the United States.

Security officials tightened searches and banned cosmetic lotions, beverages and other nonessential liquids from carry-on luggage.

Henrickson, who grew up in Willmar, Minn., had a 6:45 p.m. flight to Minneapolis.

“I have a high school reunion,” she said.

She didn’t mind the inconvenience.

“When 9-11 happened, I was a mile from the Pentagon recruiting” for Virginia Tech, she said. “I felt the plane hit. I couldn’t see it, but I felt it.”

Unaware of her whereabouts, her family flooded her cell phone with calls.

“I remember my younger sister saying ‘Where are you? I know you’re traveling. Are you flying?'” Henrickson said. “She was just bawling.”

When the plane struck the Pentagon, Henrickson said she was driving, “going from high school to high school in the D.C. area.”

Later, she flew on one of the first flights allowed after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

“I remember there were like three of us on the whole plane because people were afraid to fly,” she said.

Extra security evident

Late-morning travelers didn’t seem too put out by hasty new security measures put into place Thursday at Kansas City International Airport.

“We heard about it early this morning,” said Howard Rytting, a Kansas University pharmacy professor who was seeing off his granddaughter. “The only change was that we left an hour early.”

Rytting, a Kansas University pharmacy professor, was making sure his granddaughter, Joanna Barnum, 12, was getting safely aboard a plane back home to her family in Parker, Colo.

“I don’t think anything is any different than it was yesterday,” he said. “In fact, it may be safer because of the extra security.”

That extra security was evident. More law enforcement and airline security officers and canine patrols were on duty, said Joe McBride, a KCI spokesman.

Signs posted in the airport warned passengers they couldn’t take most liquids or gels in their carry-on luggage.

McBride said liquids and gels were allowed in checked baggage. He suggested that travelers see www.tsa.gov for a list of banned items.

Some passengers who arrived at the airport early had to ditch many personal items.

Dozens of tubes, bottles and cans containing everything from toothpaste to anti-itch cream were piled in plastic tubs in the baggage screening area.

“I emptied all my goodies out,” Sharon O’Brien said as she waited in line at the Southwest Airlines ticket area. “I’m not a bag-checker. For me, this is a big deal to check my bag.”

‘Watching world events’

State officials in Topeka said Thursday they were keeping an eye on developments from the uncovered plot to bomb flights from Britain to the United States.

“The state is watching to see if there are any spinoff concerns,” said Maj. Gen. Tod Bunting, the Kansas National Guard adjutant general and director of Kansas Homeland Security.

The state’s alert condition was unchanged at yellow, which denotes an elevated risk of attack.

“We’ve probably picked up our vigilance a little more. We will be watching world events,” Bunting said.

Bunting said state and federal homeland security officials were working together. So far, he said, the concerns seem to be focused on travel between England and United States.

He noted that federal officials are in charge of security at the two major airports that serve Kansans: Kansas City International and Wichita Mid-Continent.

Got any shampoo?

Thousands of air travelers had to dispose of their shampoo, mouthwash and cosmetics Thursday.

So when they arrived at their destination, they had to resupply.

“We have a ‘forgotten items’ drawer that’s well-stocked with things like toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, lotions – those kinds of things,” said Michael Moore, general manager at SpringHill Suites by Marriott in Lawrence.

“We haven’t had anybody come in who had to leave their (toiletries) at the airport,” he said. “If we do, we’ll certainly help them out.”